


Dreams

by Heliosthetroll



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, It's been so long that I'm bad at tags ago lol tell me if I should add something, M/M, Mild Smut, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 11:30:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18260396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliosthetroll/pseuds/Heliosthetroll
Summary: Dave stops going to the dream bubbles and instead goes somewhere much, but at the same time not so much, different.





	Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaa I'm sorry for being gone for over three months but I have a behemoth of a story for you all to make up for it and I'm considering making more chapters if people like it and want more!

It happens one night, or what has been assigned as night on this meteor hurtling through space with no sun to speak of, and it’s not expected at all. You go to bed expecting the dream bubbles like always and for a moment that’s what you get. Your eyes open again in a familiar room, your turntables and dark room left exactly as they were before this whole game shit happened, your computer on and open to an in progress page of your comic in front of you. You just barely get to take a look around and register that this is indeed your memory before things start to shift around you. At first you assume someone, most likely Rose if you’re honest with yourself, was joining you for one reason or another but the room doesn’t change to anything you expect and it suddenly doesn’t feel like a dream bubble. The final straw is when you see that your body isn’t your own. You aren’t in a dream bubble but you don’t know where you are. Outside the window that’s now replaced your computer in front of you isn’t the city you’re used to but somehow it feels familiar. You recognize the pizza place you can spot but it’s in a different spot and that record store next to it wasn’t anywhere in the city before. This isn’t your home and yet it feels like it is. You’re taller than you’ve ever been before too. You can tell because despite the window being the same height up from the floor and ground as the windows at your old apartment you’re looking down at it from a different angle than usual. You’re a good three or four inches taller in fact. When you look down at your hands you can tell they look older, more used and yet just as soft and smooth if you ignore the paper cuts here and there. You’re wearing a suit, a fancy ass black one along with fancy black pants to match and black dress shoes and black tie along with a white undershirt. You can still feel your shades on your nose as familiar as ever. You’d expect them to squeeze a bit but they don’t. They rest just as comfortably as the first time you put them on.

It’s strange and you don’t get it at all. Since you’d god tiered and your dream selves died along with that change you’ve come here when you’ve slept. The dream bubbles still made no sense to you and were very weird but they were starting to become your normal and then this happens and you don’t get it. What had brought you here and why? Did it have something to do with you traveling to the new session? Rose might know but for some reason you can’t just wake up on demand like you’ve learned to do in the dream bubbles. You’re trapped here. That thought sends fear shooting through you. What if you never get out of this weird whatever it is? What will happen then?

You feel the urge tingling in the back of your head to turn it and so you listen and turn to look behind you and spot something that sends another shock of fear and then confusion through you. Pointed black shades covering the eyes of a stoic face with spiked blonde hair. Just like your Bro. Your dead brother who had scared you constantly but was still your brother and now was dead. But there was differences with him too just like there seemed to be differences with everything else around this place. He had a few freckles dotting his nose and he was much younger, you’d place him at about sixteen or so in fact, and his clothing was different. Instead of a white polo with a popped collar and jeans along with a hat this Bro wears a loose t-shirt with a hat on it instead of one on his head and grey sweatpants that hang off his legs but fit snugly to his hips. It startles you and sets you on guard to see those shades and that expression until you notice the differences at which point you loosen but are undeniably confused and curious. Who was this and why did he look like your brother? What was happening? 

He didn’t seem to notice your distress and speaks calmly. “Having another existential crisis old man?” Before you can think about what to say your lips are moving and you’re responding to the kid. “I ain’t that old.” You swear he rolled his eyes but it’s hard to tell. Is that what you look like when you roll your eyes? Is that why it always goes over people’s heads? “Sure you ain’t. So if you’re not having a midlife crisis then what’s with the window staring?” His accent is thicker than yours but not by as much as you’re expecting. Bro barely spoke but when he did it was undeniable where he was born and raised. You were better, people could usually tell you were southern of some kind but you were careful to mask most of your accent when you weren’t emotional. It shone through more then. This kid is probably doing something similar but he’s better at it then you are. Once again you don’t even have to think before words are pouring from your lips like you’re following a script. “Just trying to memorize things.” The teen raises a blond eyebrow at you but you don’t answer his silent question and turn back to the window. 

Things start to go blurry then. For a second you almost think you’re passing out but seeing as this is some kind of fucked up dream you don’t know how that would be possible. You start to feel a tug on your heart, maybe your soul would be more accurate in this situation but you aren’t sure, and as things go more and more blurry you can almost imagine yourself leaving your, it’s not yours you remind yourself, body like a ghost. John would appreciate that thought but you don’t think you’ll ever tell him about this. He’ll probably think you’re insane. You feel almost detached and not just from your body. Your thoughts are even more random than usual and you know you should feel something about the sensation you’re experiencing but you don’t and it’s really weird. The world gets blurrier and things get duller until suddenly you’re gasping awake and jerking upright, eyes snapping open. 

The ever accurate and active clock in your head helpfully informs you that you’ve only been asleep for a few hours and most likely everyone else is still fast asleep. You’re not sure if you’re thankful for that or not. You give yourself a bit to catch your breath before shakily looking around to confirm that this is your claimed and slightly decorated bedroom on the meteor and then down at yourself to confirm that you look exactly as you did when you fell asleep right down to the fact that you’re only wearing red boxers, a hold over from the Texas heat that had only slightly let up at night. Your hand goes to your chest, right over your heart, and you use the ticking in your head to count your breaths out and calm yourself down until your heart goes back to a reasonable speed, rhythmic and smooth like the beat to a song. You sigh and lay back, feeling some of the cold sweat on your bed uncomfortably add to that already on your body and making you wince. 

You don’t get back to sleep that night. Not that you even try to. You aren’t exactly eager to find out if that will happen every time you sleep. It was confusing and the process of snapping out of it and had hurt in a weird kinda existential way that was even more confusing to think about. Who had that Bro look alike been? Who had you been? Where had you been? Why had you been there? What was even up with that whole thing? You had no clue and your head hurt just trying to think of a beginning of an answer to anything.

Time ticks by steadily like always as you stare at your ceiling and eventually it’s a reasonable time for people to be up and moving so you drag yourself out of bed and set to work making yourself look presentable. 

The day starts out decently normally and you like to think that no one notices anything is up with you but that changes when Rose pulls you aside. Unfortunately for you in this moment the spider bitch Vriska has at least mostly kept Rose sober and so she’s noticed that you aren’t yourself and wants to know why. 

“It’s nothing Rose I’m fine.” You insist but she’s not buying it. “No, you aren’t Dave. What is it that’s bothering you? Gamzee is still securely locked away if that is the issue.” You shiver at the thought of the clown troll but shake your head. “Nah that’s not it.” “So you admit there’s something wrong.” Well shit. Rose is too smart for you. Damn. You sigh deeply. “Rose come on.” “Dave I’m not giving up on this.” You run a hand through your hair and nod. “I figured.” There’s a pause. “Well?” Rose prompts. “It was just last night when I went to bed.” “Oh? Did you find a disturbing version of yourself perhaps?” “Not exactly.” She seems to be getting more and more curious by the second. “I didn’t go to the dream bubbles last night.” Her eyes widen in surprise. “That shouldn't be possible.” She murmurs and you nod. “I know Rose but it happened. But I didn’t just dream either. It was really weird.” You describe to her everything that had happened and when you stop with you waking up in a cold sweat she hums thoughtfully. “Well, I can see why that would shake you.” “No shit Rose.” You say dryly. Reliving all of that had not been fun. She sighs. “Well I don’t know why that happened to you but it could have to do with the change in sessions in one way or another. Perhaps the boy you saw is one of the players in the session.” You think about it for a second. “I don’t know. He looked so much like Bro. It’s probably just my mental shit finally catching up to me now that we have a bit of reprise.” “Perhaps that’s true but if you take into account that this new session is a scratched version of our session it’s entirely possible that one of the changes made was making your brother the player and you his guardian.” You stop to think again, going back to the one example of a scratched session you have. The dancestors as they’ve decided they’re called. Karkat never talked a lot about his ancestor but back when you and Terezi were a thing for like, a week before she scampered off back to Vriska, you managed to learn a bit about her ancestor and Vriska’s too. You kinda have to pick through the glorifications they did of them not to mention the fact that all the info they have came from Vriska’s ancestor’s journals so some things have to be taken with a grain of salt but if you think about it it would make sense for the dancestors to be essentially modified versions of the ancestors of the trolls you know. Maybe it’s just a fact of scratched sessions that whatever applies as the same species people you look up to or who protect you become the players. 

Rose lets you think on it with your eyebrows furrowed for as long as you need and finally you speak again, slowly and a bit quieter than before. “Maybe you’re right…” “It certainly is a strong possibility that’s who that boy was and who you are though it still leaves the questions of how and why you are invading their lives in your dreams.” You nod but she seems to have no more ideas on that front then you do so after a few more minutes of her comforting your nerves she parts to find Kanaya and you head off to your room, deciding you need some alone time for a while.

The next night there’s not even a dream bubble preamble. You close your eyes and when you open them again you’re looking at a TV screen somehow bigger than the one you and Bro had owned together. Playing on the screen is My Little Pony, one of the later episodes, but you never watched the show so you have exactly zero idea what the fuck is happening on screen. Some sort of antics with some baby pony or something. You can feel the tell tale dip in the couch from someone sitting beside you and when you glance over you see it’s that Bro looking kid, confirming your suspicions that this is another of those kind of dreams. He’s not looking at you, instead watching the screen in front of you with an orange soda in his hand. You scoff and he glances to you with an all too familiar raised eyebrow. “What?” “Just laughing at your drink choice.” He rolls his eyes at you. “Yeah yeah I get it Dave. Orange bad apple good.” You chuckle and the conversation dies, the kid turning back to the screen and watching with a deep focus. He seems actually invested in the show and it’s kinda cute. From the side you can see his eyes just a bit and you catch a glimpse of orange. Bro never let you see his eyes and you’d always wondered what color they were. You want a closer look at them.

However when you try to lift your hand out of a stupid desire and zero actual thought only to find that it feels like trying to lift twenty pounds of lead. It’s certainly not impossible but it is incredibly hard. You let it relax again despite still wanting to see the rest of his eyes. Apparently breaking the script ain’t approved of in this show. You try speaking, you don’t even know what you want to say, but your lips are just as heavy as your arm and you can’t even open your mouth. So you sit and quietly watch the show with him, just a peaceful domestic day with the younger version of your brother, until your vision starts to blur again and slowly but surely you become detached. It’s slower than it was last time, almost like you’re stuck or clinging to the body you are currently in, but you do wake up back in your bed eventually. There’s no sweat this time, you weren’t panicked or scared like last time, but you do still feel cold and weird about the whole situation and once again you don’t go back to sleep.

There’s less time to wait until you can leave your room this time, the dream was much longer than last time, and you’re less tired this time too. Your first instinct when you see the meteor crew is to pull Rose or maybe even Karkat aside and chat with them about this second dream but you quickly brush the thought away. You don’t want to bother them or worry them and besides this one wasn’t as bad. Still very weird and probably at least somewhat scarring but not as bad as the one before. Let Rose think that it was a one time thing and everything’s gone back to normal and don’t get Karkat involved at all. Besides asking for help meant you were weak and hell no were you weak. You were Dave Strider and Striders were not weak. 

At least that’s what Bro taught you. 

Without you telling anyone about your dream the day goes by decently normally. You can tell Rose is watching you like a hawk for any signs that something is still up but you’re the master of hiding your thoughts and emotions so she can’t catch a single thing from you. You know it frustrates her how much of a mystery you can be but it’s for the best really. Nobody needs to know about what happens inside your head. That was for you to know and you alone. You kinda missed Davesprite in all honesty. Nobody got you like that dude did since you know, he literally was you. You’d split off at some point because that’s what all timelines do and he was his own dude now especially after getting prototyped but at the same time he was still a Dave. A different Dave but a Dave nonetheless and you got each other better than anyone else. You didn’t understand some of his issues and he could be prickly about them for sure which was annoying but hey so were you so you couldn’t hold it against him. It was just like how he didn’t understand why finding out Rose was like, your ectosister, had such a big impact on you. He’d realized much later into his session the truth about that and had much more time to become numb to the game’s shit than you both before and after that relivation so it didn’t affect him as much as it had you. But it had fucked you up for a while if only secretly. In that same way you didn’t really get what his deal was with hating his whole sprite thing. But you guess that comes with not experiencing it yourself. You could be sympathetic but you couldn’t fully understand and the same went for him. 

You’re knocked out of your internal bird bro ramble by Karkat hitting your shoulder to get your attention after the screaming you’ve become well used to and learned out to tune out at this point doesn’t get your attention. You shake your head to clear your head and find him glaring at you angrily and suspiciously but you know enough about him to translate that to him being worried about you just like you’ve gotten used enough to his shouting to not jump every time he opened his mouth. It wasn’t as soothing and gentle as having Rose read a book to you, which you will never admit you’ve done before, but it was something other than silence so after getting used to the loud abruptness of it it was calming to some degree too and just like with any other sound you could get lost in your head while it happened. Just like you are now. Fuck time to focus. What’s he yelling about?

“-Fucking braindead asshole will you just stop staring off into space and tell me why the fuck you’ve been standing in front of the damn thermal hull for fifteen minutes?!” Have you been doing that? Oh, it seems you have haven’t you. Huh. What were you even doing? Probably grabbing some apple juice. Oh yeah, there it is in your hand. Weird how that happens when you go on rambling in your head autopilot. You try to play it off casually and shrug. “Just sitting around bro.” Karkat looks at you like you’re insane but once again you can see the worry he holds deep down. He’s honestly more transparent than he thinks he is especially to you since you’re used to having to read people. His worry makes you melt a little and you give him a small smirk. “Dude I’m fine. Just got kinda lost in my head for a bit you know how I am.” He seems to relax a little but he’s still glaring at you so you quickly distract him. “Didn’t you have another troll rom com you wanted to show me?” Karkat instantly starts ranting and drags you over to the couch while you chuckle to yourself about how ridiculous he is and how easy to distract he is too. 

Eventually it begins to become night again as you watch rom coms with Karkat but for once you don’t leave at the first chance, using the movies and Karkat’s screaming to keep you awake for as long as possible. Karkat doesn’t mind, he’s an insomniac like you from his past life and while he’s suspicious of you remaining he’s more than happy to keep ranting to you. Eventually though he does turn off the movies after one final one and says he needs to go make sure Gamzee is sleeping in his fridge. You know it’s an excuse and a bullshit one at that but you shrug and let him go before leaving yourself. You figure you might as well get the dream of tonight over with as soon as possible anyway. 

So you crawl into bed still in your clothes and shut your eyes to drift off into what you hope will be the abyss or a dream bubble but logically know will be neither. 

And you aren’t wrong.

Once again your eyes open in the similar but not the same apartment that is starting to become familiar to you. This time however you are somewhere you don’t at all recognize. From the layout of the walls and window and shit you can tell it’s in the same spot where your room should be so by logical deduction it’s probably kid Bro’s room. A quick glance around where you are without actually moving your eyes or head reveals a cluttered mess. The corner you are facing is taken up mostly by a desk that wraps around the corner with a computer and chair as the main focus but with many other trinkets covered it as well including a digital art tablet that was hooked up to the computer. There was also a little bit of the desk that had metal covering it and next to that was tools galore which also spread out to the complete opposite side of the desk past the computer and everything else. He certainly seemed to be the handy type that was for sure. Creative though too. There were too many posters to keep track of them and over half of them were graffitied in ways that were familiar to you. Or at least you had automatically assumed it was graffiti but a closer look says that no those are just how they look. Which is incredibly surprising considering they look like a real life version of your comics with heavy digital editing and CGI. 

Did… Did your comics get made into movies or something? That’s impossible but it’s really the only explanation you can come up with. Holy shit your comics are movies here. Your mind is gonna need some time to think about that. So you tuck it away to think about when your wake up so you don’t miss anything while you’re here. 

You must be standing in the entrance because you can actually see most of the room from here. He’s got a bed that looks decently nice but is decorated with those cheap ass sheets you know come from like, Walmart or something and one pillow and nothing else. Even back at your own apartment your bed had been nicer than that but you get the feeling that’s a personal choice of his seeing as you are still wearing a fancy ass suit. That and the fancy ass music mixing shit right next to you. Holy shit that shit is top notch. And that flat screen TV. Damn. The movies must be doing really well. Your blood chills a little when you notice a small pile of smuppets on the floor and a few very SBHJ styled puppets around but really gets you is what you spot when the mini Bro, who had been sitting at his high tech computer, turns to face you. His turn reveals your ‘best bro’. 

Lil Cal. 

It’s like a bucket of ice water being dumped straight out onto your head and you can feel your lips moving as you talk to the kid in front of you but you aren’t registering a word. All you can think about is the creepy ass puppet staring back at you like it can tell you don’t belong. 

Back when you were at home Lil Cal was Bro’s cool if a little creepy puppet he would use to attack you occasionally but after you woke up on Derse, saw Cal there too, and played the game you had started to realize that Lil Cal was something much more. What exactly you don’t know but something bigger. Davesprite had mentioned noticing a few things too since he had this thing as a sprite instead of the badass sprite you got but neither of you knew exactly what was going on with Cal. Just that it wasn’t at all good. 

You’re barely there for five minutes before you feel the tug of you being pulled and you openly welcome the numbness and everything else that comes with that this time. You want out and you want out now. 

The cold sweat is back when you gasp into wakefulness in your bed again. It’s like those eyes are stained into your vision. Those blank blue eyes that stare directly into your fucking soul. It takes a good ten minutes before you stop seeing them and another fifteen for you to calm down completely. By then you still have a long ass time before you’re supposed to be up but after that you don’t give a shit you need out of your room. It may be different from the apartment but it’s still way too similar for comfort right now. You need something different. Something really different. 

You don’t even realize where your feet are taking you until it’s too late and you’re standing in front of Terezi’s door in nothing but boxers. You have enough foresight to have your god tier pjs get thrown on before you knock but honestly you don’t know why you knock at all. You stand there for a bit and just as you’re about to turn and leave, figuring you weren’t welcome or weren’t going to wake Terezi up with a knock the door opens. Her hair is sticking up weird but you doubt she cares and she’s not wearing anything besides her glasses with no sign of shame for it at all. You know she had a similar thing to you with her shades at least somewhat do that’s not a surprise to you and it’s a really good thing you got a full lecture on troll biology from an angry Karkat that you questioned during one of his rom coms a long time ago or you’d be really confused by her grub scars and the lack of visible genitals. Her nook is too thin of an opening to really be noticable and her bulge isn’t out to play so both are pretty much invisible beyond the tiny slits you’d see if you bothered to look. She’s got her head tilted to the side and you can practically see the little question mark mouth she uses when she types. It’s a silent question of why you’re here, something she knows from experience you’ll answer if she stays silent for long enough due to your rambling habit and uncomfortableness with silence. Her pushing you into things she knows you don’t enjoy to get what she wants was one of the reasons you broke up after all. She’s right though when she knows it will break you so you give in willingly. “I need to be somewhere not like home.” You say and you can tell she’s still confused and curious but she lets you inside, knowing that much like Rose it won’t take her long to dig into your mind and dig up what she wants to know. She is Seer Of Mind after all.

Her room is just the right kinds of weird and unfamiliar but yet familiar at the same time to be comforting. You’ve been in here a few times but not enough to be too familiar with it and it goes the same way for her and your room. The room is colorfully decorated with chalk and scalemates, rope here and there too. She’s got a small pile, not like one meant for two people in the pale quadrant but just a small one for her to sleep in since they don’t have sopor slime or recoopracoons, made out of scalemates. You head over to said pile and plop into it, feeling drained and tired. She comes over to stand in front of you, leaning down close to your face. If you weren’t used to her antics by now you’d say she was going to kiss you but nah. You know better now. She’s just hoping to intimidate you which admittedly she’s unnervingly good at. You stare back at her blankly and she speaks after a long sniff. “You smell like fear Dave.” It’s a simple statement but the question underneath it is laid plain all the same. Why are you scared? She’s asking. Why are you scared in the middle of the night, she’d probably call it day out of habit like the other trolls do, and coming to her?

You don’t want to give her an answer to that. So you shrug and nod silently.

But her staring is relentless and stubborn and you know from experience she isn’t going to take that and give up like you wish she would. You really don’t want to tell her everything though. Maybe a half-truth won’t prick her lying detecting nose.

“I had a nightmare about home.” She doesn’t know just how bad home had been for you, much like the rest of the trolls she wouldn’t understand why it had been bad so you didn’t bother talking about it with her and she didn’t seem to mind much, but she knows you don’t like thinking about home much and that home fucked you up until you were who you are now. She sits down, moving away from your face but still watching you with those eyes that want so much more from you. She’s not as knowledge hungry as Rose by any stretch but she’s still very curious especially when it comes to things having to do with your mind. Or anyone’s mind really. But you and Karkat’s minds have always been especially interesting to her. 

She’s silent for a while and you shift nervously under her gaze which makes a wide grin spilt over her face and suddenly she’s up in your business again. You pull back in surprise but she matches your movements, mere inches keeping you apart. A weaker man might kiss their ex in a moment like this but not you. Not a Strider. “Oh really Strider? And just what would this nightmare of yours have contained?” She says and your half surprised she doesn’t do her trademark cackling laugh after the words.

You don’t want to tell her. In fact one of the last things you want to do is tell her. But she’s not going to give up until she knows. You know that. But that’s not going to stop you from fighting it for as long as possible. 

“Oh, you know the usual shit.” “I highly doubt that Strider. You would not be this scared otherwise. Not to mention nightmares aren’t supposed to be possible anymore with the dream bubbles available to us.” You curse under your breath before speaking to her again. “I’m not that scared TZ.” There’s her cackle. “Oh please, Strider you reek of fear.” “I think your nose is busted Terezi.” “Even if it was you’d only come to me if you truly needed to.” She pokes your chest and yeah she’s got you there. Sure you’re still friends even after the breakup but you’ve certainly not been as close and haven’t exactly been hanging out alone. Especially in the middle of the night. “Maybe I just want to see you again.” Your bullshitting and she calls you out on it instantly in her own unique way. “Are you trying to get back in my quadrants Dave?” She’s grinning just as wide so you know she doesn’t actually think you are but it effectively corners you and forces your answer. “Nah man we broke up plain and simple.” “Then you are fearful.” You stay silent for a while, trying to think of a way out of this before you finally sigh and her grin widens somehow as you speak. “Yeah yeah you got it TZ I’m terrified.” She cackles again and you’re really glad that these walls don’t let sound through, a quality you also were very happy with when you discovered every three days in rom com all nighter night for Karkat, because that means she’s not waking anyone with that laugh. “Of what Dave? What is the all mighty Strider scared of?” And there’s what you were dreading. Telling her that what terrified you so badly was a fucking puppet. If Rose had a field day when you admitted that to her after a long ass time of her poking you about it when you were discovering Cal’s shit out then Terezi is never going to let you live it down. Not to mention her jokes won’t exactly be subtle. You really don’t want to tell her about Cal at all. But she’s got you trapped. Fuck. 

“It’s just this thing that’s been happening recently.” You explain about your weird dreams and Rose’s theories on it before finally getting to your most recent dream. “This time… Well I wasn’t expecting him to be there obviously but Cal was there.” She tilts her head, obviously confused as to who Cal is so you explain that to her too. She actually moves away from you and her expression is serious as she thinks over the information. You allow your hand to rub your arm and you look away self-consciously, knowing she’d smell right through your cool kid act anyway. Another thing that had sent you scuttling away when you had dated. She was just a little too constantly intense for you so seeing her this calm and thinking so hard is startling to you. This isn’t what you had expected. Maybe she was hiding just as much as you? No that was impossible. She was Terezi not Dave. 

“Well that certainly would make a good case for a reason to be fearful.” She says finally and you give her a deadpan expression. “You think?” “Don’t sass me Strider.” A brief flash of her normal self before continues calmly. “I’m going to talk to Rose about this tomorrow,” You groan but she ignores you, “but for now you should stay here and get some rest.” “TZ there’s no way I’m going back to sleep.” She grins again. “I said rest not sleep Dave. Use those ears of yours.” You roll your eyes on her but honestly you’re relieved to have her somewhat acting like herself again. 

You end up spending a long time there with Terezi but neither of you really interact with each other. She’s off with her scalemates doing fake court cases or just staring at one and muttering occasionally and you stay over in her pile safely out of the way to watch. Eventually though you do end up leaving so you don’t make the others, Karkat mainly, think you had fucked or something. You wait the rest of the time before everyone else comes out in the kitchen with a coffee. People give you weird looks as they notice you are the first one up this morning rather than your usual pattern of sleeping in due to a bad sleep schedule that meant going to bed and waking up late but you brush them off silently and drink your coffee in relative peace.

You avoid people a lot that day. You don’t make it obvious or anything but you think people notice anyway. At least most of them are polite enough not to mention it or stop you. And Vriska is too self-absorbed to really give a shit. So you’re allowed you privacy and alone time away from everyone else. It’s honestly kind of refreshing to have a silent day. You’ve been so caught up in talking to all your friends ever since this game began that you haven’t really had some good old Dave alone time in a while. So you seize the opportunity and spend some time getting some quality R and R. 

Unfortunately a side effect of a night of little rest and a day of relaxation is an overwhelming urge to sleep. One so all-consuming that it was impossible to fight and all too tempting to go along with. 

You conk out at some point and your eyes open again you find yourself face to face with the sleeping face of the Bro like boy. You almost don’t recognize it with his hair a mess rather than styled to perfection and his shades not on his face but sure enough it is him. He looks peaceful sleeping like this, an expression you never got to see on Bro’s face even in all your years with the man. His face is soft, eyes gently shut and mouth open just a bit with his hands placed by his head. Your hand reaches out and you gently caress his cheek and he doesn’t wake, still just sleeping calmly. This too surprises you since you knew Bro to be a light sleeper when he slept at all. The slightest sound of you walking in the hall to the bathroom would wake him. It’s nice. Having him near you like this and relaxed like this. It fills you with a strange warmth as you study his face and hold his warm skin in your hand. 

It’s only when you realize that both of you are naked that his eyes open and you are pulled from the dream.

You… You don’t quite know what to make of that final realization of yours. The kid had been in what you assumed to be your bed completely naked with you naked beside him and gently cupping his cheek as he slept. There was certainly a certain direction that was pointing but it was impossible right? Yeah you both were brothers there was no way that happened. But then what other explanation is there? 

It’s not even back to night time again when you wake up but you move out of the bedroom to go rejoin your friends and find Karkat and Rose sitting in the kitchen talking. Well Rose is talking. Karkat is screaming like usual. They seem to be debating something so you approach to find out what’s on the table this time. You discover swiftly that Rose had deemed it a good idea to recommend the Twilight series to Karkat and Kanaya and that because Karkat had just finished both the troll and human versions that was the current subject of debate. However instead of the usual Edward vs Jacob talk you’ve just come in to them discussing which version of the story was better. The troll rainbow drinker version or the human vampire version. You can’t help but chuckle at them and give a bit of your input here and there about things but mostly you just crack jokes since you in of yourself haven’t actually read any of the books troll or human.

Karkat and Rose both seem to appreciate you being there to throw their emotions at so they don’t accidentally get mad at each other which is easy for them to do when they start debating with each other. You don’t mind. You know they don’t mean any of their insults so less of them get stuck in your skin then would for each of them if the insults were launched at each other. You’re always ready to protect and help your friends when they need you. You guess that’s why you’re a knight. If only you had some sort of royalty to serve rather than being so damn alone.

Before you know it it’s time for bed again. 

You kinda want to go to bed this time, hoping maybe you can get some clue as to what exactly was happening the last time you went in. So you lay down and don’t stall this time before shutting your eyes and letting sleep take you away to that mysterious apartment. 

As soon as you awaken you regret wishing to go to this place. 

Your hands are on the warm flesh of his hips and the first thing you see is his face, shades off and mouth open wide as he pants. You can feel the pressure of his hands against your chest but you’re mesmerized by his face. His eyes hold a mix of emotions like you’ve never seen before. Lust, love, admiration, and so much more are held there. It’s so much all at once. So much that for a moment you don’t notice why he’s panting. Then he shifts and moans and you suddenly realize that he’s sitting on your dick. Your dick is firmly up his ass and from the look and sound of it he’s enjoying it. A lot. “Fuck D you feel so good.~” He moans out as he lifts himself up. “You always say that.” Your lips return, voice breathy and strained in a way that tells you the person usually in control of this body is just as into this as he is. “Because it’s always true.” The kid, fuck he’s a kid and you’re a full blown adult right now, says back before literally slamming himself down and stabbing himself with you dick as he moans loudly, back arching heavily. Your own back arches as well and you hear a deep groan pull from your throat as pleasure shoots through your body. 

If you were in control your body would be frozen. But your not. And the scene around you continues, the kid fucking himself on your dick and you bucking up into him every once and awhile, while you panic from your prison inside your own mind.

This was wrong. This was so fucking wrong. He was a kid and you an adult not to mention he’s your fucking brother. This is too much. You know fucked up thanks to your own brother’s actions but even he never went this far with you and you don’t know what to think about this all. His skin is spotless of the scars you bear but you can’t help but feel like this is somehow worse. 

And the worst part? You’re enjoying it. Not just older you who you are in the head of but you in yourself are enjoying this in some sick part of your heart and mind. Some part of you is turned on by this and is taking pleasure from it. You hate it. You hate it so fucking much.

The torture lasts for a lot longer than you want it to, probably because of that disgusting part of you, but eventually, you are pulled from the dream and awaken drenched in sweat of the not so cold variety and breathing heavily. And to top it all off a bad cause of morning wood.

You groan and bring your hands up to your face, covering it and then dragging them down it until they flop back at your sides as you try to will away your boner. You can’t believe you got hard from that. You can’t believe you enjoyed it. You can’t believe other you enjoyed it. You can’t believe other Bro enjoyed it. Well. That part is a bit less unbelievable but still. All of this is too crazy to be real. At this point you’d fully believed everything that’s happened in those dreams were real but now you really hope they aren’t. You really really hope it’s fake. You really want it to be fake. 

You’ve been so focused on your own issues that you’ve completely forgotten that today is the day you fully arrive in the new session. That is until Karkat comes pounding on your door way too early in the morning for him to normally be awake. You’ve managed to get your dick down so with a groan you drag yourself out of your mind and out of your bed to go answer the door. Karkat is standing there clearly nervous and so you sigh and ask him what’s wrong to which he replies, with an incredulous face, “Are you brain dead Strider? We’ve arrived at the new session! It’s mere hours from us meeting the players here and your other two friends!” You snap to attention at that, eyes going wide behind the shades you had grabbed to put on before opening the door and back straightening. “Wait seriously?” Karkat nods with a glare. “Yes, Strider!” “Shit. Thanks for the warning man.” And with that you shut the door in his face, earning you angry yelling from behind it but you ignore it. At least he’s not stressing himself out anymore. Kanaya will find him soon and take care of him. You panic for a bit thinking about what the fuck you’re supposed to do especially if the dude you see in your dreams really is one of the players in this session after that last dream. After a good ten minutes of that you finally get enough of a grip on yourself to get dressed in your god tier outfit, gotta make a good impression, and leave your room looking as calm as you physically can at the moment which thankfully everyone is too wrapped up in themselves to notice is any different than your normal self. 

You all eventually get yourselves up to the open air of the meteor and look around at where you’ve arrived. You can see Prospit and Derse though from what you can see none of them look to be in the best condition but they’re still there at least and along with them you can see four planets much like had existed back in the old human session. You’re not close enough to pick out details but each of them do have considerably tall things poking out of them which can only be the homes of each of their inhabitants, built up to reach the gates. So they must be decently far on their session at least. You wonder if any of them have god tiered yet right before you see four bodies heading towards your humble meteor. 

That in itself doesn’t confirm anything but what does is the colors of their clothing. One is in the tan of Life, another the dark blue of Void, yet another the bright yellow of Hope, and the final one the dark magenta of Heart. You can’t see much from back here but what you can gives you guesses of classes for them too. You’ve got a Maid Of Life, Rogue Of Void, Page Of Hope, and Prince Of Heart. Rose is much better at knowing what that means really but it at least gives you an idea of possible powers which is what really concerns you anyway. You’ll have to be careful of the Prince Of Heart but as long as the Page Of Hope isn’t too far into figuring out their powers he should be the only one you have to be worried about. 

However you freeze up when they get closer and you notice one detail about the Prince. His shades are pointed. 

It’s him. It’s really him. He gets closer alongside his friends until they land on your humble meteor home and sure enough that’s him. There’s a long silence as both groups scan over one another. You’re frozen still even as others start to move and talk and you’re just staring at the boy with the pointed shades as he stares back just as still and silent as you. You don’t know what to do. How to react. It’s all you can do to focus on his stoic face now rather than remembering the way he had looked with his mouth open and shades off in your most recent dream. The way he had felt around your dick. The way he had sounded moaning out a name close to but not quite yours. And there goes that attempt. At least you aren’t hard. That’s something. Wouldn’t say you’re not a little turned on but not hard. And you’re quickly working to squash that terrible aroused part of yourself. 

He makes the first move, walking towards you slowly while his friends around you converse with yours. Some kid who looks way too much like John in the Page Of Hope get up is talking to Kanaya and Karkat alongside his friend in the Maid Of Life outfit while the one in the Rogue of Void outfit who looks like Rose only somehow kinda hot and also not at all Rose but also really Rose, that’s weird, is talking to Rose though you can see Vriska is butting in like the bitch she is and Terezi is standing there presumably to keep her bitch girlfriend somewhat in line. But back to the dude walking towards you. He doesn’t seem to have any more social skills then you because there’s a long silence even after he reaches you before he finally gives a slight wave and speaks with a blank voice that almost sends chills down your spine. “Sup.” His voice is deeper than it had been in your dreams, an effect of puberty you suppose, but it’s not quite as deep as Bro’s had been. It’s stuck in the limbo of not quite man not quite boy that is strangely creepy because you can tell it will become Bro’s voice someday so much more than you could before but it’s not there yet. You keep your cool though and wave back, returning his greeting exactly the same way he had. Another silence washes over you both after that for a while before he clears his throat and speaks again. “So... you appeared out of nowhere but you don’t seem like game constructs. And you also look like a younger version of my bro. And that girl over there looks like Roxy’s mom but the rest of you are trolls and yet you all seem friendly and I’m kinda pissed about that. So what exactly is going on here?”

Well that’s something you didn’t want to have to answer. But hey you weren’t expecting not to have to. So here you go. 

“That’s a long fucking story man. To start yeah those guys are trolls but we’re all cool. Don’t know why you’re so pissed about them but I guess it’s not too unexpected. I sure as hell didn’t expect to be friends with them at first. But here we fucking are with not only friendships but romances happening with them.” Dirk makes a face but your rambling doesn’t give a shit and keeps on going. “We come another multiverse and another two sessions of this here game you all are playing. Our game kinda got fucked to hell though so we’re here now. Scratched the old place and escaped to here. That’s the short of a very long story. If you want to hear the full thing I recommend Karkat, the shouty troll, or Rose, my sister in the orange over there, as they love talking their heads off. I’d say Vriska too but she’d twist everything so it looked like we had fucked up where she did everything right. Which is total bullshit since really she caused most of this bullshit. So yeah avoid the girl over there next to the one in red glasses. Red glasses girl is her girlfriend er matesprit Terezi and she’s chill though. The last troll is Kanaya. She’s really nice but also kinda a motherly interferrer, Rose says she’s attracted to the paler quadrants or some bullshit that I don’t understand, and she had Rose are dating hardcore.” 

This dude, this dude, he isn’t becoming angry or even annoyed at your rambling that goes way off topic into introducing everyone like normal people would. Like Bro would. Instead he’s watching you like you’re the god your outfit says you should be but really you aren’t. He’s listening carefully and quietly, nodding along to show he isn’t losing himself in space like you sometimes do. It’s a startling change from being interrupted mid-ramble like you usually are. It’s so uncommon that it’s strange to feel your ramble petter out rather than be stopped mid-sentence. It throws you through a hell of a loop when you finally just, run out of things to say and stop. All with him still watching you intently like you’re all that matters in the world.

It’s intense to say the least. 

There’s a long still silence before he nods and speaks again. “Clearly your world was a lot different from ours if you are interacting with and dating trolls like that but I suppose that makes sense if your words are the truth. If what I managed to interpret from what little information there is in this session is true than you being from a scratched session makes sense as well. Considering you look exactly like my dead brother.” He says it so casually that it almost sends a shiver down your spine but you hold back. 

“I do? Wow. You look like mine.” You try to say just as casually as him, cringing internally when instead you sound nervous and kinda scared just like you are. “Huh.” He replies blankly. “Weird.” You nod and things fall silent another time. You already didn’t like silence but now you’re starting to really despise it. Come on come on think of something to say already.

“So I’ve been having weird dreams lately.” No anything but that you stupid idiot mouth!

He raises an eyebrow at you. “Really?” “Yeah. About you. But like, younger.” “What kind of things do you dream about me?” He seems curious and it confuses you but out of a desperateness not to have everything go silent again you continue. “A few different things. Things I guess must’ve been your childhood. Rose said that’s probably what it was. I saw it through what must’ve been your brother’s eyes. I had a total of five dreams before we got here.” He nods slowly. “Me too.” “What? What’s that supposed mean? You too?” “I’ve had dreams like that too. About you. Through the eyes of your brother.” 

You freeze with panic and your eyes go wide as he looks at you with a pity only you can see and understand. He’s seen your childhood. Your terrible terrible childhood. Your terrible brother. He saw through his eyes all the terrible things that have happened to you. 

“Oh.” You finally manage to say. Nothing else will come out. You want to say so much and you’re surprised that you don’t but you don’t. You just go silent as your mind races away from you even faster than you can keep up with. 

“I’m sorry.”

What?

He’s apologizing?

Why?

“What?” “I’m sorry.” “For what?” “All of what I did.” You are incredibly confused. “Dude I only just met you.” “This me.” You are even more confused. What the everloving fuck is this dude going on about? He’s not a time player so it’s not timeline bullshit. That would’ve even make sense anyway because the only dude you’ve ever met whose anything like him is… Oh. He’s blaming himself for everything Bro did. 

“Dude no. Bro isn’t you. Here’s the thing with alternate selves, and trust me as the dude who made a different timeline version of himself into his sprite I’m a master at this, they’re you but they’re also not you at all. Sure there’s similarities, often times quite a few, but the more the timeline they travel differs from your own the less you they are. And from the sounds of it our timeline is a hell of a lot different from yours. Therefore Bro is a hell of a lot different from you. So don’t think that what he does is at all your fault or even related to you in the slightest man cause it’s really not.” His eyebrows furrow as he takes in your words and for a brief scary moment you’re afraid he’s going to get mad and prove everything you just said as false despite all your understanding of your aspect and experience with it and how it relates to this subject. But he just nods and seems to take the information into account instead. No anger or lashing out at all for going against him. Just acknowledgement and the adding of information to his thought processes. It’s weird and definitely throws you through yet another loop of strangeness despite what you just said. 

“I trust you.” 

Those simple words send you through another loop and flying back towards just how much he trusted the old you and how much of that probably transferred to you. Fuck. That’s not something you want, are ready for, or know what to do with. “Uh… Thanks. I guess.” You say nervously before things fall into silence. 

People are starting to disperse now, go off to take care of things or simply find somewhere else to talk. Rose and her more cheerful double go off to talk somewhere and Kanaya grabs Karkat and drags him off, probably so she can freak out to him about how hot both Lalondes are, and Terezi and Vriska head off as well to do whatever it is too insane chicks do in their free time, the dude and chick that look like John both head off somewhere as well, leaving you and Dirk alone on the top of this meteor. In complete silence. Eventually, you blurt, “You were really really close with your brother. Like super close. Like literal fucking close.” He seems a bit startled and instantly you regret your blurt as you can feel his gaze turn to one of suspicion and tense slight anger. “Yeah.” He doesn’t say it but you can read the silent what about it in his voice. Fuck you fucked up big time. You really fucked this up. “Yeah, I saw it in my dreams and stuff. Just one of them though. I saw the aftermath in a different one so that might count too I’m sorry I should just shut up.” You shut your traitorous mouth quickly as Dirk stares at you and this time it’s just as unreadable as Bro used to be and it makes you incredibly nervous. You gulp and shift on your feet again before he speaks. “And your thoughts?” You know Bro would be able to tell if you lied to him and as much as you want to believe that won’t carry over you don’t want to take any chances. So as much as you hate it you spill the beans. You spill every last bean about exactly how hot that dream had been but how disgusting it made you feel and how terrible it was that you liked it and he listens carefully, face stoically impassive.

You’re about to cry and you know it by the end. You’ve gone soft without Bro and you know it even if you hate it. This stare is too much and you’re slightly choked up when your mouth finally stops. And he just keeps staring for a good minute or so. Finally he speaks again though.

“D felt like that too. That’s his name. My brother. His name is D. Was.” “Oh.” You say simply and he must have a bit of rambling in his blood too because he keeps talking. “He died protecting me from HIC, queen of the trolls.” You wince at that, having heard stories of how cruel she could be from your friends. “She came to Earth trying to take over. D died so I could escape and hide alone long enough to get and play the game. I was alone for a long time after he died. He died when I was thirteen. We were so close. Closer than we should’ve been and we knew it. But I didn’t care. D did but he put it aside for me. He did everything for me. Even if it didn’t always seem like it. I miss him.” You listen to his emotional words as his eyes stare at the ground and after you’re sure he’s done you speak up. “Bro died in the game when I was thirteen trying to stop Jack Noir, a big bad boss we accidentally made. Someone undefeatable. But Bro tried. And Davesprite said he tried so he could protect me. That everything he’d done to me was to protect and train me for the game. Somehow he knew about it ahead of time. And he wanted me to be ready for it. He did it all for me. I miss him.” Dirk is staring at you but this time you don’t look to the ground for even a second. You hold his gaze despite the intimidation it exudes and how much you want to show submission to him. Finally, he speaks again.

“I loved him.” 

You nod and after a moment’s thought you speak.

“I loved him too.”

There’s an understanding made between you both silently in that moment. You’re not exactly what each other remember but you’re close and maybe in some ways it’s better that you’re not exactly like your older brothers. And maybe you can be what each other needs. A rock and protector for you, someone to come up with plans and tell you how to do what you need to do, and a friend and helper for him, someone to help him with his feelings and thoughts when they get too tangled and someone he can trust. And maybe you can even be more. 

Maybe you can even be lovers.


End file.
